Mika's life is pretty bleak. He lives on the British coastline behind a giant wall that was erected three decades earlier as a result of the Animal Plague. The plague was not all that different from rabies in that it turned animals of all types, from insects to whales into tremendously dangerous creatures. The populations of the world had to retreat to the far northern and southern countries behind giant walls built to keep animals out. Anything outside of the wall was decimated with poison to eradicate danger for the surviving humans.

As you can imagine, everyone lives in cramped quarters and limitations on what people can eat. As you can imagine, meat is a rarity, and meat products are actually produced on racks using molds. Hmmm ... yummy!

To make matters worse, Mika's twin sister Ellie went missing almost a month earlier. While most people, including his parents, believe she is dead, Mika thinks he can sense her. To him, she must be alive. The readers quickly join him in that belief with the books opening, which finds Ellie racing to escape a group of evil overlords under the leadership of Mal Gorman. With the help of a small ape named puck, Ellie makes her way to a Pod Fighter and uses it to escape an orbiting space station and crash on Earth not far from her family's settlement. Unfortunately, she is quickly recaptured.

Gorman realizes that Ellie is special because she seems to exhibit some sort of telekinetic powers and is hoping to find others like her. As a result, he starts a competition on earth using neighborhood arcades. The 12 and 13 year olds living behind the wall will compete in various arcade games that will test various skills in order to help highlight the perfect people.

While Mika doesn't know the details, he does believe success in the games will allow him to find Ellie and bring her back home. He is willing to do whatever it takes to make it. Along the way, he gets help from some friends like Audrey, a girl who was born without eyes and has two optic implants to help her see, and a few others. As they progress through the competition.

Along the way, they also learn some horrible secrets about their global society that will answer questions about why no one was allowed to have children for 30 years and why everyone has been hiding behind the Wall. The truth may be even more horrifying than they thought they new and the definition of who is a hero and who is an enemy will be harder to identify.

I thought this was a really interesting read. Clayton has done a wonderful job of creating a dark, dystopian society. parts of it reminded me of the Earth as it was presented in The Fifth Element, which starred Bruce Willis, only this is even worse. The young characters are strong, though the adults that surround them seem overly simplistic and lemminglike. The latter is explained more thoroughly as the book moves into its conclusion.

The games are interesting and fill the book with danger and action that leave the reader cheering for Mika and his friends. Ellie also has a number of scenes that highlight the troubles that she is going through. Mal Gorman is not as powerful as one would think considering his position, and his faults make him more human and more complex.

The story is definitely plot driven. While it is enjoyable, most of the characters are pretty flat and a bet stereotypical, which is disappointing considering the length of the book and the fact that little is resolved, leaving it open to at least one sequel, which I am definitely looking forward to reading.

Mika and his friends are easy to identify with, and the reader is likely to be left cheering for more. In some ways, the book reminds me of a James Bond tale. A fully defined otherworld is created, and the reader is just willing to accept the differences even if they are not fully explained or defined.

The title is hard to explain until the final chapters, when the people behind the Wall find themselves split by caste differences that have become more defined over the years.

All-in-all, I thought this was pretty good. While it is not a must-read. I was really glad that it was recommended to me by a good friend of mine.